I recently received a copy of The Sword by Bryan Litfin from the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program. The Sword seeks to explore what would happen if the Bible were introduced into a society with no knowledge of God or the Bible. The book follows the main characters as they progress from living in this society to the life changing experience of finding a copy of God’s word in an old church.

The premise of the story is very interesting but I found the setup to be rather simplistic and unbelievable. Once you get past the two introductory chapters the story that follows is very compelling. The characters were interesting and most of the situations they found themselves in were believable. The false religions presented in the book are ridiculous but it see they are very similar in that respect to those presented in the Bible.

The good characters have their flaws and realize that the only way to accomplish anything is to believe that God is able to deliver them. They don’t always do the right thing but find that God will forgive even the worst sinners. They learn that God doesn’t always work out situations the way they would like but that they need to have faith that he is working.

The writing is not exceptional but didn’t distract from the story most of the time. I think it’s a good job for a first novel from the author. I would recommend this book to any that are intrigued by the premise of introducing the Bible to a society completely without Christianity. I look forward to reading the second volume in the series.